Yay for Yoga!

I've been struggling with  the reduced calorie thing a bit, and totally ran out of veggie snacks today, but I woke up feeling pretty good. I've been running to Chipotle at 11am cuz I'm so very hungry, but today I decided to put that off until after teaching my first free power hour at work.

The free power hour has been some months in the making. I work for a Federal agency, and I contacted their gym coordinator, and he had to reserve an appropriate conference room, because the on site gym is too small and most of the rooms have tables in them. I sort of thought it wouldn't happen but then the space opened up and today was the first class.

So then I thought no one would show up. TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE showed up! It was amazing. And they all came with open hearts and we had a seriously amazing class! I totally forgot being hungry and was just caught up in the joy of sharing yoga with new enthusiastic people. It was fantastic!

So I ended up not eating until 2pm, and then I went to 6pm yoga. It was my friend Maggie's class. Maggie's been taking Rocket and Ashtanga, and her Baptiste class is now a serious exercise in ass-kicking. It was super fun and I totally childs posed it up for some of it, cuz seriously. INTENSE.

Anyways after that I taught my 7:45 class. Not many people have been coming to my class these past couple of weeks (and am I making a story out of that? You bet I am...) so I decided this week to take advantage and do a wall class. I had half the class spread out against one wall and half spread out against the other, facing each other. We did wall stuff like handstand prep on the wall, side plank with feet on the wall, and my favorite, half moon on the wall. It's just fun for some stuff, and then it's a way to get in touch with alignment for poses like triangle. I wouldn't do it every class but it was fun to play, and I had one student walk up the wall from wheel for the first time. I love first timers!

I'm super sweaty and tired, but happy. I've broken the rules and had my shake after 7pm, but then, the rules I'm breaking along the way probably deserve their own post. Tomorrow's plan is to do a short home practice, go to work, and then go on a date. Wooo, date! He's vegan so we'll still be eating close to the earth. Happy Day 4!

I have a problem not eating lots of delicious food, if lots of delicious food is in front of me. This is one reason I like the Fit Kit - I know what I can eat, I have it, and I'm definitely not going to binge on protein powder.

However. I have great friends and a loving family, and they all love to eat/host/put lots of delicious food in my general vicinity. This very weekend, for example, I'm headed to the Jersey Shore with a friend, where we will stay with my Godfather, who will lay out bagels, muffins, doughnuts, cold cuts, cream cheese, and cook some eggs for good measure. And that's just breakfast.

So, the problem isn't just that I have a hard time abstaining. I think it'd be ok to eat a reasonable amount of these foods. But I end up eating way too much. Like, two doughnuts and a muffin and eggs and some cheese, for breakfast. This is something I'd like to find a way around/not do anymore. Because it sucks to follow a plan five days out of the week and then eat so much on the other two that it feels like I'm undoing all the good stuff.

That's something to ponder between now and Saturday - I know part of my defense will involve doing as much exercise as I can - jogging, biking, swimming, surfing, walking. But I'm hoping to also come up with an eating plan that's not "Eat all of everything."

Today's not over but I consider it a success. I'm still noticing lots of anger coming up. I guess I eat my feelings more than I thought I did! Also I felt more tired today, which led me down the path of thoughts like, "How bad would it be if I got a croissant?" And "Why don't I get a pedicure instead of going to yoga?" But I went to yoga and I didn't eat any croissants. And soon I"ll be swept off the ballet, where there won't be any food because ballet dancers aren't allowed to eat anything. :)

Happy Day 3! Enjoy this picture of delicious eggs benedict, aka a normal portion of breakfast.

Reflections on Day 1, Plan for Day 2!

Mmm, blueberry vanilla almond milk fiber protein dinner! Today went pretty well. I had a chocolate blueberry shake for breakfast, some celery sticks and green zucchini sticks for a morning snack, the promised Chipotle burrito bowl for lunch, and a hot green tea during an agonizing staff meeting. I was pretty hungry at points during the day but also pretty busy, which helped.

I also got a granola/almond/pepita/coconut bar at a coffee shop - it had honey and condensed milk in it, so ehhh, you know, but I felt I needed a bit of something before 4:30 yoga. And 4:30 yoga was great! I didn't feel faint or anything, which I did on the cleanse yesterday during 7:30am yoga on an empty stomach. Now I'm drinking my recovery shake, and I think after teaching I'll be a bit hungry, maybe, but not much.

The other thing I noticed was feelings of annoyance and anger. That may be the caffeine withdrawal and it may be the hunger, but I was kind of annoyed at lots of people today. The staff meeting, for example, was mostly about how to have more effective staff meetings, and I marveled that four other smart people didn't see the Dilbert-ness of that. But yoga put me in a much better frame of mind.

Tomorrow the plan is pretty much the same as today, except I'll be going to 6am yoga. Also I'm going to the ballet tomorrow! Our studio got a bunch of free tickets to the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet at Wolf Trap. It's at 8:30pm, so I'm not concerned with hunger as much as with staying awake past 9pm. Methinks a pre-ballet nap will be in order.

Hope everyone's first day went awesome! Happy Day 2!

Day 1! Sort of not really.

So, nothing makes you feel sexy quite like a skin-tight rubber suit. Kidding! Actually, once I got it on, the wetsuit felt like a warm hug, but once I saw the pic I had to admit it is not the hottest look ever. I had a blast on my vacation anyway, but now I'm ready to clean up my act a little and start the Arbonne 30 Day Fit Kit challenge!

Actually I started last week, but as with so many challenges, I 'eased in', or 'half-assed' the first few days. So I'm calling today my official first day.

Here are my fears about the challenge:
-I won't be able to follow it
-I will follow it but won't notice substantial changes to my health or how I look

Here's what I'm hoping:
-I will be able to follow it!
-I'll lose some weight (this seems likely, since it seems to add up to 1200 calories a day or so)
-I'll get used to feeding myself in a healthy way
-I'll learn some strategies to deal with birthday dinners and social stuff

My plan for today is to eat Chipotle for lunch (burrito bowl with steak, black beans, fajita veggies, lots of tomato salsa, and brown rice - so glad Chipotle has brown rice now!) and go to 4:30 yoga after work. Then home for a recovery shake, then study for an upcoming Security + cert, and then teach my 7:45 class. Cheers to Day 1!